KTH ROYAL INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Towards integrated sustainability assessment of forest bioenergy
options in Brazil
FLÁVIO L. M. FREITAS 1
Supervised by Ulla Mörtberg 1 and Gerd Sparovek 2
Flavio L. M. Freitas Teknikringen 76, SE-100 44 Stockholm, Sweden
+46 (0) 760969417 flmdf@kth.se
1. “Legal Reserve“ is the percentage of the total area of the farm which need to be preserved.
Footnotes
IN COOPERATION WITH:
• Brazilian natural vegetation is one of the world’s largest storage of carbon and home for more than 10% of the known species on earth.
• Substantial expansion of planted forest is expected to take place in the coming years as a climate change mitigation strategy.
• Brazil has revised its Forest Code recently (most important law for protection of natural vegetation in private land), weakening the protection requirements to facilitate compliance (very low in previous Forest Code).
Compensation mechanism CRA
13.1 Mha
• Brazil holds about 566 Mha of native vegetation (63% of the land cover). About 80% of the natural vegetation is protected by the prevailing land use legislation. Still about 110 Mha is currently unprotected, and can be legally deforested.
• The new Forest Code of Brazil have reduced the requirement of forest restoration in about 53 Mha.
• About 352 Mha is private land with no legal obligations. A large share of this land is covered with degraded pasture.
1 Environmental Management and Assessment Research Group, SEED Department, KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden
2 Soil Science Department, University of São Paulo (USP), Brazil.
Revision of the Brazilian land use legislation (The Forest Code)
How much and where is the private land with no legal obligation (and available for expansion of bioenergy crops)? How much of the existing native vegetation is
protected? and how much is not protected?
Main findings
Acknowledgement: Funded by CNPq through the Science Without Borders Program
Environmental Management and Assessment (EMA)
Research Group
Division of Land and Water Resources Engineering. SEED Department
https://www.seed.abe.kth.se/om/avd/lwr/
grupper/ema/research
Main research areas:
• Urban landscapes and futures
• Energy systems and
environmental assessment
• Water resources management and decision support tools
• Spatial and environmental systems analysis tools
University of São Paulo
Process universe 826 Mha
Private land
524 Mha (NV 284 – AG 240)
Public land ”Terra legal”
93 Mha (NV 78 – AG 15.2)
Public conservation
207 Mha (NV 204 – AG 3)
Public conservation
207 Mha (NV 204 – AG 3)
Private land
557 Mha (NV 302– AG 255)
Titling2
33 Mha (NV 18 – AG 15)
Conservation2
60.2 Mha (NV 60 – AG 0.2)
NV2
<=95% >95%
Public conservation
267 Mha (NV 264 – AG 3)
Public conservation
267 Mha (NV 264 – AG 3)
Not processed 26 Mha
(Urban, water bodies, roads)
Private land before reduction and compensation
308.9 Mha (NV 119.3 – AG 189.6)
APP
30.2 Mha (NV 16.9 – AG 13.3)
Legal reserve required 218.6 Mha (NV 166 – AG 52.6)
Ratio of the PRnoOB and the total farm area
Ratio of the deficit of legal reserve and the total farm area
Ratio of the potential supply of CRA and the total farm area
Native vegetation not protected by the prevailing legislation:
110.3 Mha
Private land no obligation
352.5
Mha (NV 110.3 – AG 242.2)Reduction of LR 39.5 Mha
Legal reserve needed
166 Mha (NV 166.0)
Surplus NV from Atlantic forest (L11.428)9
9.1 Mha
Question to be answered during this PhD research
• Where are the hotspots in terms of land use GHG emission?
• Where are the hotspots in terms of biodiversity losses?
• Which are the trends and direction for the expansion of planted forest for bioenergy production?
• Which are the potential positive and negative environmental effects of bioenergy production related to land use changes?
Ratio of the total reduction of LR and the total farm area
